Pinwheels Extras
by Mirimel
Summary: Extras from my story Pinwheels of Red and Black. Things that certainly happened, but didn't fit into the original story; things Reika could not have known, different perspectives on things that she did know, and things that were otherwise left out. Not set in chronological order.
1. Anniversaries

**Hi. So, I should be writing Pinwheels... but instead you get this. It's the first of a series that's mostly unrelated, but set in the universe of my story, Pinwheels of Red and Black. For anybody finding this new: it's basically exactly the same, except with an OC who is Sasuke and Itachi's younger sister and three years younger than Sasuke. Which I understand is quite annoying for anybody who doesn't like OCs, and I don't blame you if you don't want to read it. As the fanfiction summary says, it's a bunch of stories that wouldn't have fit in the original story; scenes that we see from Reika's point of view in somebody else's, things that Reika could not possibly have known, and scenes that just didn't fit with the tone of the original story. By the way, I _am_ taking requests on scenes that anybody might want. Obviously, they have to be Pinwheels related.**

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**Summary: Because no one could truly be unaffected by something like the massacre.**

**Anniversaries**

_It was late, Sasuke realized, glancing around. He'd been practicing with shuriken in the Academy training yard, but he hadn't meant to spend so long doing it. Mother had expected him home hours ago._

_Sasuke gathered up his shuriken and put them away quickly. Hopefully his mother wouldn't be _too_ worried about him. He wondered momentarily if Little Sister would be worried – but no, she'd probably just smirk at him knowingly, unsurprised at the late hour. Reika was rarely concerned about anything._

_After he finished cleaning up, Sasuke grabbed his bag and ran for home. Running all the way, it didn't take him long to get back to the compound. _

The gate to the compound is still open,_ Sasuke noted. That wasn't too strange, though; maybe the guards were just waiting a little longer today. They did that sometimes, changing up the times that they closed the gates, since they didn't want to get predictable._

_Eager to get home, Sasuke ran into the compound. It seemed really dark, somehow, as if the clouds had blocked out all the stars. It _was_ cloudy, but even more so, all of the lights were off in the houses._

That's weird_, Sasuke thought, getting worried. _It's not that late… has everybody gone to bed?

_Feeling eyes on him, Sasuke gasped and spun around, looking frantically in the direction he'd felt the eyes. There was nothing there._

_Disquieted, Sasuke continued on his way to his home. His mother would have waited up for him, he knew, so he could ask her what was going on. Maybe Little Sister would still be awake too – she was good at distracting him._

_Sasuke turned a corner, further into the compound – and there were bodies lying around the area, blood everywhere._

_"W- What… what is this?" he stammered. He continued forward, terrified of what might have happened._

_Reaching his house, he found all of the lights off there too._

_"I'm home," Sasuke called as he entered, his voice shaking against his will. He slid his shoes off quickly, running further into the house._

_There was no answering call of "Welcome home!" as there should have been._

_Only silence._

_He slid to a stop in front of the door to his parents' room. "Father! Mother!" he called, knocking on the door._

_"Sasuke, don't come in," emerged from the room. It didn't sound like either of his parents – it sounded like Itachi._

_Sasuke ignored the advice, pushing the doors open warily. He barely noticed as the doors closed behind him._

_Stepping forward, he nearly tripped over a dark shape slumped on the floor._

_"Little Sister?" he gasped, recognizing the figure. She was positioned on her side, facing the door, and looked as though she'd collapsed abruptly. Her face was slack and pale in the moonlight, and she didn't so much as twitch. She looked dead._

_Sasuke glanced further into the room. In the center of the room, there was a much larger, shadowed shape. It didn't look right to be a person. He stumbled further into the room, stepping over Reika, and took another look at the distorted figure._

_He was right, Sasuke noted with growing horror. It _wasn't_ a person; it was two. His parents, lying on the ground together. His father was slumped over his mother, and there was blood splattered around them. They were clearly dead, covered in their own blood._

_"Father! Mother!" he screamed again, unable to help it, and stumbled a couple of steps further into the room._

_Itachi stood just behind the prone forms of their parents. His faced was hidden in shadow; Sasuke could barely see him at all._

_"Big brother! Big brother, big brother!" he said, panicked, taking a couple of steps forward. "Father and Mother, they-! They're-!" Sasuke was practically sobbing. "Why… why? Who could have -! This is…"_

_A shuriken flew past him, tearing the sleeve of his shirt and cutting his arm. It slammed into the door, where it stuck._

_"Foolish little brother," Itachi said impassively. He closed his eyes, taking a breath._

_Itachi's eyes flew open, meeting Sasuke's. Rather than their natural black, or even the normal red with the black tomoe of the Sharingan, Itachi's eyes contained an odd black design inside the red iris. It was the same design Sasuke had seen in his eyes before – when he had confronted the other Uchiha._

_Sasuke only had a fraction of a second to process it, drawn into a different world. He screamed, even as he lost awareness of his surroundings._

His father faced away from him. "As I thought, you are my child," he said inscrutably.

Everything changed quickly, falling around him until he was in a different memory. "When your father talks to me, it's only about you," his mother told him secretively, smiling.

It was almost like he was flying, except really everything was falling. His sister beamed at him, childlike and yet somehow not. "We're family, of course," she said cheerfully, a shadow lurking behind her eyes.

The world fell, and he was looking at a smiling Itachi. "We are unique brothers," his brother said. Though he was smiling, he somehow looked sad.

Everything dropped out from under him, landing him in a new memory. "Forgive me, Sasuke. Again, next time," Itachi said, poking him in the forehead playfully.

_The real world faded back in, and Sasuke was once again aware of the bloody room, the corpses of his family. He had fallen to the ground, he realized, and pushed himself up slightly. He couldn't seem to actually move very well._

_"Why… why did you…?" Sasuke trailed off, unable to finish the question. _Why did you kill our family?_ went unspoken._

_Itachi seemed to understand, staring coldly at Sasuke. "It was to measure my capacity," he said._

_"To test your capacity?" repeated Sasuke, horrified. "That's only reason? That's it? Just… just for that?"_

_"It was essential," Itachi said simply._

_Sasuke practically shook in anger. He could suddenly move again, the adrenaline overpowering whatever had been keeping him immobile. Slowly, he began standing up."That… that's… complete crap!" he shouted, rushing at Itachi._

_Unaffected, Itachi punched him in the stomach. Hard. Sasuke's breath was knocked out of him, and he crumpled right back to the ground._

_He stared at his parents' dead bodies, now right in front of him. Tears formed in his eyes, a couple leaking and falling down his cheeks._

No! _Sasuke thought._

He shot up in bed, breathing hard and covered in a cold sweat. Turning on the light – just in case – he glanced at the clock beside his bed. It read 11:06. Sasuke exhaled heavily, rubbing a hand over his face.

_I only got two hours of sleep._

But he really didn't want to go back to bed. He was furious with himself; he'd gotten over this, or at least the nightmares part of it. It had been a _year_.

Exactly a year, in fact.

Sasuke sighed and drew up his knees, burying his face in them. Exactly one year ago, to the day, Itachi had slaughtered the Uchiha clan.

Sasuke glanced at the wall, on the other side of which he knew was his sister, sleeping peacefully. Since the massacre, he had found out that she wasn't dead, though she had seemed to be. In the beginning, when he had had nightmares near every night, she hadn't had any at all.

Admittedly, he was a little jealous.

He needed to sleep, he knew… but he didn't want to. He rolled over, pulling one of his scrolls out of his bedside table, and tried to concentrate on it.

Three minutes of reading the same couple of lines, stopping to glance around the room, and then reading the same couple of lines again later, Sasuke gave up. He threw the scroll across the room. It hit the wall with a satisfying thump and fell to the floor. Growling to himself, Sasuke rolled out of bed and started pacing the room.

He was twitchy, and he couldn't ignore the feeling that he was being watched, nor the feeling of impending doom.

_Something bad is going to happen!_ His nerves insisted. Sasuke shoved them down firmly, but still found himself unable to stand still.

He stalked towards the door.

_Maybe I'll just check on Reika…_

Logically, he knew that nothing would happen. Just because it was the same day didn't mean anything…

But this time last year, he'd thought his sister was dead. The rest of his family _was_ dead, but she wasn't, and he didn't ever want to feel that way again.

Sasuke slipped out into the hallway, and _there was a light on in the living room_. Now suspicious, his heart beating wildly, terrified that on _this day of all the days,_ he sneaked out into the living room.

The light _was_ on, and so was the T.V, though it was muted. There was a small lump in the center of the sofa in front of the T.V. It was Reika, curled up into a ball.

Wondering if he'd misjudged her – _maybe she had a nightmare too – _Sasuke wandered out further into the room.

Reika glanced up at him, her face unreadable but slightly red, her eyes just the slightest bit puffy. A moment passed in silence, and Reika scooted over on the sofa, making room for Sasuke on one of her sides.

Sasuke kind of wanted to cry again – _he was so happy that she wasn't dead_ – and he willingly accepted the offer, sitting next to her. Reika immediately moved back over next to him, curling as close to his body as she could get, and rested her head on his shoulder. Glancing down at her, Sasuke found her eyes wide open and focused on the T.V. Clearly, neither of them wanted to sleep.

That was okay with Sasuke, though.

With a slight mental shrug, he leaned against her, resting his head on hers, and watched the silent T.V.

They might not have been okay, not by any means, but at least they were together. Sasuke figured that was far better than nothing.

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Itachi's eyes opened slowly, his heart steady and his face expressionless, and he sat up calmly. One of the most basic rules of ninja, especially criminals, was to be emotionless and stoic at all times. Even for a fourteen-year-old after having a nightmare.

Using the sky, Itachi gauged the time. He decided that it was not quite midnight. Kisame still had the watch for several hours before Itachi was supposed to take over. Itachi debated his options. They had a job – because it was a mere mockery of a true mission, and didn't merit being called such – planned for the next day, and Itachi would need to be rested for it. However, most ninja were adapted to working with sleep deprivation, and Itachi was no exception. Additionally, it was unlikely he would get much sleep even if he tried, as the nightmares would simply continue to wake him.

Course of action decided, Itachi shifted to lean against a tree. "I will take the watch." His voice cut through the silence, startling Kisame, though he made a valiant effort to conceal that fact.

The twenty-five-year-old blinked at his younger partner, unused to taking orders from a fourteen-year-old. "Why?" he wondered. S-class missing-nin were not known for their generosity.

Itachi just stared at him, unemotional and intimidating. Kisame relented quickly, unwilling to challenge the last Uchiha. Kisame fell asleep quickly, as all ninja learned to do, and Itachi was left alone in silent darkness.

He didn't mind. He had known what he was doing.

Itachi didn't deserve comfort. Not after what he'd done.


	2. Detention

**For ****Fai****, who requested Sasuke's reaction to Reika's fight with the girls and him waiting up for her that night after her detention. I hope I did it justice; Sasuke is such a hard character to do correctly. Fair warning, though, this is largely a rewrite of scenes from Pinwheels, just from Sasuke's point of view, which, because I suck, didn't change very much. Also, ew, abrupt ending. Sorry about that.  
**

**Spoiler warnings (which I forgot to do last chapter): None for canon ****_Naruto_****, since this never happened, and for Chapter Seven and Chapter Eight of Pinwheels.**

**Hope you like it!**

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**Detention**

**Summary: Sasuke loved his little sister. Really. Even when she got into fights and 'forgot' to tell him important things.**

It was entirely unexpected. Sasuke did not get along with everyone, but he was generally good at dissuading confrontations. People could get as mad at him as they wanted; they wouldn't dare attack him.

The day was normal; Reika had hypocritically shooed him away to 'socialize' –ugh – and then proceeded to hide in a tree herself. Sasuke did what she wanted, talking to the childish creatures that he shared a class with, mostly because of the _look_ she gave him when he didn't. It wasn't the normal _look_; it wasn't angry or disappointed or unimpressed. It was _heartbroken_.

Sasuke was almost entirely certain she was faking it, but he still fell for it.

So he was 'socializing' with the irritants, keeping one eye on Reika because that was just what he _did_. He was her older brother; he was allowed to be protective. And so he noticed when she dropped down from the tree, landing in the midst of three girls. Sasuke didn't recognize them, but he figured they were in Reika's class.

Though a little surprised that she was willingly interacting with her classmates, Sasuke didn't think much of it, disregarding it as insignificant. It startled him when one of the girls jumped at Reika, easily being sidestepped, and the other girls imitated her, attacking _Sasuke's little sister_.

Needless to say, he was _furious_. Sasuke started shoving his way through the crowd to his sister, cutting one of the irritants off mid-sentence. He didn't care. Entangled in the crowd that was growing around them, Sasuke momentarily lost sight of the four brawlers.

When he emerged from the mass of people, it was to see the fight over, Reika's teacher standing in front of the instigator. Reika was lying on the ground, unmoving.

Sasuke hurried over to her – _oh no not again not like this_ – barely seeing as the other two girls moved to stand with their friend. He fell to his knees beside his little sister, leaning over her, and noted with relief that her eyes were open, focused dully on her teacher and classmates.

"Reika?" Sasuke said to Reika to get her attention. It took a couple of moments for Reika to notice him, her eyes focusing on his face. "Reika, are you okay?"

Instead of giving an answer, Reika said randomly, "Hey, Sasuke, think I could pull off being a zombie?"

_What?_ What did that have to do with anything? Sasuke stared at her, somewhat worried that her unrelated topic meant that she wasn't in her right mind. But then, he figured, Reika was always a little weird, so it probably meant she was okay.

He smirked at her, recognizing an opening for sibling teasing. "No, Reika, I don't think you could pull off being a zombie right now." _You don't look dead this time._ "You're too pretty now."

Reika gasped, sounding scandalized, and whacked Sasuke on the arm – which didn't even hurt – bursting into laughter immediately afterwards.

They sat together in comfortable silence. Sasuke didn't want to speak, not now that he had made sure his little sister was okay. He was worried, now; he wasn't sure he could handle her getting into fights a lot, as ninja did. But then, he could understand her desperate need to be able to fight.

"Uchiha." The voice came from above them, startling Sasuke. Looking up, he recognized Reika's teacher.

Sasuke knew that she had probably been referring to Reika, but he _was_ Reika's guardian, technically… "Yes?" he said at the same time as Reika.

"The _younger_ Uchiha," the teacher clarified with a faint smirk. "How are you feeling?"

Sasuke looked back to Reika, also wanting to know the answer.

"I'm not too badly off," Reika avoided the question.

"Really." The teacher's voice was dry. Reika nodded, seemingly oblivious to her teacher's disbelief. "Think you can stand up, then?" the teacher challenged.

"Yeah, probably," Reika said with a nod, standing with her teacher's assistance. "Where'd the others go?"

Sasuke stood up, too. He fully intended to go with his sister.

"Waiting in my office," the teacher answered, and continued with, "Let's go to the bathroom and get you cleaned up, and then we'll join them, okay?"

Understanding immediately _why_ Reika would be joining the others, Sasuke glared fiercely at the teacher. His sister was _not_ at fault here, and she definitely didn't deserve to be questioned right after being _assaulted!_ Not to mention that she was _five._

Reika gave an understanding look. "Sure," she said, interrupting Sasuke right before he would have started an angry tirade in her defense.

Sasuke turned to give her a shocked look. Catching his shocked look, Reika smiled at him, patting him on the arm lightly.

_It's fine, Sasuke,_ it meant.

He frowned slightly. Reika may have been okay with it, but Sasuke was not. "I want to go with," he said.

Reika's teacher gave him a knowing look. Sasuke bristled slightly. She didn't know _anything_.

"Sorry, Uchiha." The teacher did not sound at all apologetic. "Stay out here, please."

Sasuke scowled at her, knowing that that 'please' did not make it a request. "But –" he argued anyway.

"Stay," the teacher said.

_I'm not a dog!_ Sasuke thought, annoyed.

"Sasuke," Reika said. She entwined her fingers with his. "Thank you, but I'll be fine." Sasuke frowned at her, and she gave him a hopeful look. "Just stay out here? Please?"

Sasuke tried to be angry with her, but he just couldn't. Somehow, Reika's 'please' was much more convincing than her teacher's. Possibly because she actually meant it.

"Fine," Sasuke agreed unhappily.

Reika smiled at him brightly, cheerful as ever despite her injuries, and the teacher led her inside.

Sasuke stalked back over to the group of simpletons he'd been 'socializing' with before. He kept his face emotionless, and they didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

_Idiots,_ Sasuke derided them. He much preferred the company of his sister, three years younger though she was.

He was _upset_; he was supposed to protect her, and he _couldn't_. Not from the fight itself, not from stupid teachers thinking it was her fault, not from Itachi, not from anything.

_I need more power._

Reika reappeared just before the end of lunch, and didn't say anything about how the meeting had gone. Sasuke assumed they hadn't thought she was at fault, or she would have said something.

The _next_ day, however, they were walking out of the Academy, the school day over.

"By the way," Reika started awkwardly, "I kind of, uh, got detention for the fight yesterday."

Sasuke had to do a double-take, having not expected that. "You got _detention_?" he asked, getting annoyed. Not with Reika, though he would have preferred if she'd told him earlier, but with her teacher, who had apparently given her detention for _defending herself_.

_Some system,_ he grumbled to himself cynically.

"I got detention," Reika confirmed, oblivious to his inner monologue.

"It's been a week," Sasuke protested weakly. Of _course_ his little sister would have gotten herself a detention within two weeks of starting school. Of course.

Reika shrugged at him, unbothered. "I know. I'm just that skilled, clearly."

Sasuke rubbed his forehead. "Clearly," he agreed with a sigh. She really was. "And it's tonight?"

"Yup," Reika said carelessly. It was obvious she wasn't concerned about the detention.

Sasuke sighed at her again. "You couldn't have told me earlier? Like, I don't know, _yesterday_ when you actually got the detention?"

"I forgot?" Reika shrugged again. He narrowed his eyes at her, unimpressed with her avoidance tactics. It worried him, sometimes, how independent his little sister seemed to try to be. She was still _five_; she wasn't supposed to be doing things like getting into fights – okay, that was a ninja thing – and hiding detentions.

"Do you know what will happen?" Reika said suddenly.

Sasuke recognized that she was changing the subject, but he went with it anyway. "No, I don't know," he said. He continued with a snarky, "It's not like I've ever gotten detention, you know." and raised his eyebrow at her.

Reika scoffed. "Pfft. You're just jealous," she bickered back. "Think I should bring the scrolls?" she wondered after a moment.

"How should I know?" Sasuke said. Detention could be _anything_, from sitting in silence to doing a ridiculous workout. "I guess. I mean, what's the point if you don't learn anything?" he reasoned. Besides, it wasn't like bringing the books could be a bad thing, even if she didn't get a chance to read them.

"That's true," Reika acknowledged.

Sasuke debated with himself over whether or not to offer to stay. On the one hand, Reika was his little sister, and he'd obviously wait for her. On the other hand, actually _offering_, showing that he cared… it left him a little more vulnerable than he cared for.

"Do you want me to stay?" he offered anyway. It didn't matter with Reika, he figured. "I can wait 'till it's over."

Reika half-smiled at him, looking like she appreciated the sentiment of the offer but not the object of it. "No, it's fine," she said, rolling her eyes teasingly. "I know the way back."

_Uh-huh._ Sasuke was sure she did. "Really?" he said skeptically. "'Cause I seem to remember you getting lost… a lot."

Reika blushed, turning a rather impressive tomato color. "I – I meant to do that," she lied. She let out an awkward cough. "Whatever, that's not the point." She shoved him, but he barely felt it. "I'll be fine, okay? Go home."

Sasuke gave her an unconvinced look. Like he was just going to _leave_ his little sister. "That's believable."

"You wound me, dear brother," Reika said, giving him a blank look. "No, but really, I can take care of myself, Sasuke." She cringed, clearly recognizing how unbelievable it was.

And it _was_ unbelievable. Reika was not an intimidating figure; she was of incredibly diminutive size, with large eyes and messy hair. Frankly, she was, though Sasuke hesitated to use the word, adorable. And that was without considering her aforementioned lack of ability to navigate.

"Okay, that was a lie," Reika spoke again before Sasuke could. "But really, it'll be fine. What could happen?" she widened her eyes, staring intently into Sasuke's own, and looked very earnest.

Sasuke sighed a little on the inside. "Reika –"

"Please, Sasuke," Reika cut him off. She looked at him with big, watery eyes. "Trust me?" she said it pathetically, as though she would be absolutely heartbroken if he did not.

As always, Sasuke was well aware that she was manipulating him. And as always, he gave in anyway, if unwillingly. "Fine," he conceded the argument. He was aware of how important her autonomy apparently was to her, though he just wanted to keep her from getting hurt… "But if you get lost or something, don't blame me."

Reika was unimpressed with his warning – and also suddenly perfectly calm. "'Course not," she consoled, shoving Sasuke in the direction of the gates.

Sasuke didn't fight her too hard. He _had_ agreed to leave her there. Obediently, he started on the walk home. The further away he got, though, the more his older brother sense of protectiveness wailed at him that he was _leaving her unprotected_.

His last chance before he wouldn't have been able to see the Academy, he gave in to the alarm, spinning back to face the Academy. He found Reika still standing there in the courtyard, looking utterly tiny. Seemingly annoyed with his hesitance, she waved at him to keep going.

_Fine, fine._ Sasuke continued walking away from the Academy. At the very _least_, Reika's teacher was there to protect her.

_Unless it's _her_ Reika needs to be protected against,_ Sasuke thought bitterly, but didn't turn around. He couldn't spend every minute of every day of the rest of their lives with her, and she'd be fine without him. Probably.

Of course, Sasuke may have said he wouldn't wait at the Academy, but that didn't mean he couldn't still wait up for her. He knew better than to think she'd get home soon, however; some of the other students had talked about how terrible and long detentions were. That still didn't prevent them from continuing to get detentions, though.

Since he'd be waiting for a while, Sasuke took out his homework to do, as he usually would after school. It generally took him about an hour to do, so he figured that Reika would be getting home about the time he finished.

He was wrong.

An hour and six minutes later, Sasuke had finished his homework, and his sister was nowhere to be seen.

Sasuke frowned to himself, now worried. He couldn't help it; Reika was five, and he'd left her alone, and she was only in her first month of the Academy, there was no way she could defend herself if she was attacked on the way home. Or maybe her tyrannical teacher was keeping her at the Academy, forcing her to do – something horrible, or something.

But then, Reika would get mad at him if he showed up looking for her and she wasn't in danger. And, he supposed, it wasn't really likely that she'd get attacked – they were in a ninja village and she was an Academy student – nor that her teacher would do anything _too_ mean.

_Fine, I won't go looking for her,_ Sasuke decided. _Yet._

In an attempt to distract himself, Sasuke read his scrolls and books for a while. He then decided that he couldn't sit still anymore. He cleaned the house a little, making sure everything in the kitchen and bathroom and his own bedroom was in its place. Reika's room remained untouched, as he wasn't willing to enter it without permission.

Still antsy after finishing, Sasuke changed into his pajamas. Maybe Reika would get back faster if he was ready to go to bed (Sasuke didn't believe it, either). Also, it would deter him a little from leaving, since he'd have to get dressed first. Of course, it wouldn't really deter him _much_, since his sister was more important than the mild inconvenience of changing clothes.

At two and a half hours since Sasuke had gotten home, he decided that he was going after her, and she could be mad at him all she liked. With perfect timing, as he started towards his room, he heard Reika's key rattling in the lock. The door creaked open and she stumbled in, closing and locking it behind her.

Sasuke breathed out, unspeakably relieved. _She's okay._

_But what could have taken so long?_ He wondered. "Reika, what took so long?" he questioned, realizing belatedly how rude that was.

Reika didn't seem to mind, smiling at him as she emerged from the entryway, dropping her bag on the table. "One of the others tried to ditch, so we ended up spending an hour extra waiting for them. And then Iera-sensei made us run twenty laps."

_So that's the teacher's name._

Sasuke had to contain a smirk, not wanting to annoy her. Reika was just so – um – _funny_, a disgruntled look on her face about the laps. "That sucks," he offered, trying for sympathetic.

"It does," Reika agreed, either missing or ignoring his falsehood. She blinked. "Did you really stay up waiting for me?" she said accusingly.

Of course he had, but saying that made him sound like a doting parent waiting up for their teenager to get back from some illicit party. "Of course not," Sasuke lied to conserve his reputation.

Reika snorted and waved him towards his room. "Liar. Go to bed, seriously."

"Only when you do," Sasuke said evenly. Reika looked like she needed it more, anyway; she was wobbling, and wasn't focusing very well.

"I _am_," Reika pointed out. She groaned unexpectedly, and looked sleepily miserable.

Now worried, Sasuke asked, "What's wrong?"

"We have school tomorrow," she answered with a pitiful look.

_We do, don't we_, Sasuke realized. It was a stupid thing to forget, but he had. He resigned himself to hating himself in the morning. "I'm going to bed," he decided.

Reika rolled her eyes at him. "I know. Goodnight." She stared at him expectantly, apparently waiting for him to go to his room.

"Goodnight," Sasuke answered automatically, not paying attention. He was suspicious, now, that she wasn't actually planning to go to bed. And she _needed_ to go to bed, because sleep was important, especially for young children. Sasuke ignored the fact that he was acting like a mother hen, sitting on the edge of his bed and listening intently. He wanted make sure she went to bed.

It became rather obvious once he heard the shower turn on. It made sense; Reika had apparently just done a lot of running, and she generally preferred to shower in the evenings anyway.

He still waited up until he heard the shower turn off and Reika wander into her room. Of course, she could still stay up, since she had books in her room, but it wasn't likely. Why would she stay up to read tonight when she could just read tomorrow?

Sasuke reflected that he should probably trust his sister more, but she was five; he wasn't being unreasonable in his protectiveness. Maybe when she was older (which, since she would always be younger than him, would be _never_).


End file.
